The dreams of your past.

Madtown Mama had a post recently on her blog with an old photo of her boys. This inspired me to think back about my earliest sewing projects. I just happened to still have this one in my photobucket account.

Nearly 4 years ago I made L this dress from a basic pattern that was all the rage on the sewing forum at the time. It's called a "Jami Dress", after the mom who designed it. I've made a bunch of variations on the pattern over the years. Gathered skirts, narrow skirts, different strap materials, knits, wolvens, you name it. I even made a tank top out of it once with matching shorts.

For this incarnation I used pink silk. The straps are folded over ribbon. The skirt is a gathered version. The under layer is a doubled piece of tulle. I folded so that the fold could act as a hem, eliminating the tricky step of hemming and over stitching the ravely material. Instead of hemming the silk outer layer, I bound the edge with more of the ribbon that was used for the straps. The little bows are tied and sewn on after the dress was constructed. The ribbon in L's hair (look at how short it was!) and the bows are made from the straps of the strap ribbon.

She wore this dress to my cousins wedding with a little white sweater. I still have it in the closet because it is so cute! Of course the fact that she was little and willing to mug for the camera helps. I sometimes wonder what happened to that camera hog of a kid. Now all I get are complaints or funny faces!